The recent House version allows the medical professionals at the Department of Health and Human Services to write the rules which will ensure women’s safety. I want to thank those who worked on an improved bill which will better protect women while not further limiting access.

After signing the bill, McCrory told reporters that restricting abortion care was motivated by health concerns rather than GOP political strategy. Indeed, he blamed others for politicizing women’s health.

This law does not further limit access, and those who contend it does are more interested in politics than the health and safety of our citizens.

Photo by Jenny Warburg

Similar to the restrictive abortion legislation Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law on July 18, this bill greatly limits access to abortion care as well as to other health services that women depend on—contraception, cancer screenings, HPV vaccinations, STI tests and sex-ed. S. B. 353 also bans sex-selective and telemedicine abortions, permits health care providers to opt out of performing abortions and prohibits abortions to be covered in insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

While S. B. 353 does not explicitly require abortion clinics to meet unnecessary and expensive ambulatory surgical care standards, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will be able to enforce regulation as they see fit. That could threaten the closure of 15 of the state’s 16 abortion clinics, because only one clinic currently meets the ambulatory surgical care standards outlined in the bill. The Associated Press reports that meeting such standards of clinic construction costs about $1 million.

Although, Gov. McCrory claims that S. B. 353 will not restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortion care, it is clear that his agenda certainly does not include protecting reproductive rights. Said Suzanne Buckley, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina,

The restrictions on abortion care in S. B. 353 are exactly what Gov. McCrory promised he wouldn’t sign. North Carolina voters are watching and they will remember this in 2016.

This isn’t the first time McCrory went back on his word to voters. In his re-election campaign last year, he promised that he wouldn’t sign further abortion restrictions into law—yet he signed S. B. 132, an abortion education bill that requires public high school teachers to include scientifically unproven information linking abortion to higher risk for preterm birth.

Photo by Jenny Warburg

Because the anti-abortion bill was tacked on to an unrelated motorcycle safety proposal, pro-choice activists drove motorcycles around the Governor’s mansion on Monday to show their opposition. Social media has referred to the bill as #motorcyclevagina since it was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on July 10.

From voter suppression laws to repressive abortion measures, this North Carolina legislative session has been nothing short of abysmal. As Buzzfeed’s Jamison Doran wrote in summation of the “achievements” of the state’s Republican-controlled legislature,

The state, once a beacon of progress in the south, has been turned upside down into a complete and utter embarrassment and has given credence to the stereotypes that have plagued it for years.

Comments

According to N.C. Senator Josh Stein (D-Wake), the new restrictions will close 35 of the 36 clinics in North Carolina providing abortiom services, not 15 out of 16 as cited in the blog post. Making the regulations even worse, in my opinion.

The way I see it, these new draconian regulations only serve one purpose; to compel women into pregnancy, by denying them access to both abortion and contraception services, as well as other health services for women. This will impact poor and low-income women most severely, as many of them probably don’t have health insurance and regular physicians.

The really scary thing is that this “compel women into pregnancy” agenda isn’t confined to just North Carolina. It is being imposed in other Republican-controlled states as well, as we all know. What can be done about it? I’m not sure, but I do know we have to do SOMEthing, because it is clear to me that the ultra-right Republicans want to turn back the clock on women to the 1950’s, and possibly even before that.

It’s absolutely fascinating to watch the GOP frame the argument for more restrictive laws in terms of protecting women while simultaneously jeopardizing both their immediate and long-term health. I, too, am a former resident of North Carolina before I came to my senses and moved, but as Ms. Nelson reports, other states are marching to the same drum, Texas included. Maybe it’s the water supply or perhaps over exposure to UV radiation down there, but the women who live in NC need to remember this perfidious assault on their rights. Either toss the bums out or move to a state that isn’t stuck in the 19th century.